Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Syrian President Bashar Assad's chances of retaining power are getting "smaller and smaller" every day, according to the transcript of an interview with CNN released by his office on Sunday.
It was Russia's most vocal statement that Assad's days may be numbered. But he reiterated calls for talks between the state and its foes and said Assad must not be pushed out by external forces.
"The task for the United States, the Europeans and regional powers … is to sit the parties down for negotiations, and not just demand that Assad go and then be executed like [the late former Libyan leader Moammar] Gadhafi or be carried to court sessions on a stretcher like [Egypt's] Hosni Mubarak," he said.
(Reuters)
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